Sport Trac Gets SVT Treatment in 2007

DEARBORN – Ford Motor Co.’s Special Vehicles Team (SVT) is back in business, promising a super truck by 2007 based on a revised Explorer Sport Trac sport/utility truck.

The auto maker plans to unleash the Sport Trac Adrenalin with all-wheel drive and a 4.6L V-8 – grabbed from the ’04 Cobra Mustang and fitted with a Roots-type supercharger – capable of 390 hp and 390 lb.-ft. (529 Nm) of torque. The engine sends power to all four wheels via a 6-speed automatic gearbox.

The Adrenalin’s design is based on the next-generation Sport Trac, likely to bow in 2006 as an ’07 model, drawing heavily from the Sport Trac concept shown at the Detroit auto show in January.

The truck, fitted with meaty 21-in. wheels and oversized brakes, is equipped with Ford’s patented Roll Stability Control technology coupled with a revised suspension. It is specially tuned by SVT’s “chassis wizards,” Hau Thai-Tang, Advanced Product Creation and SVT director, says.

SVT Sport Trac due in 2007.

The specialized package includes short- and long-arm front suspension, a trailing-blade independent rear suspension, SVT-tuned shock and spring rates and more aggressively tuned front and rear stabilizer bars.

The original Sport Trac debuted in 2000 as a 4-door pickup derived from the Explorer SUV platform. The vehicle received poor grades for rollover performance when scrutinized by the National Highway Traffic Safety Admin. (See related story: NHTSA: SUVs Pose Largest Rollover Risk)

Ford will show the Adrenalin at this week’s New York International Auto Show alongside other future SVT vehicles. The auto maker says the forthcoming truck offers similar functionality to the F-150 Lightning, which is no longer produced by SVT. However a spokesman says the Adrenalin should not be thought of as a replacement.

The vehicle is capable of towing 6,000 lbs. (2,722 kg).

If anything, the Adrenalin gives a sneak peak of what will define the next generation of SVT vehicles. In addition to AWD, the menu includes a navigation system, ample seat bolstering, white-faced gauges and red leather interior touches.

SVT officially has been on hiatus since the summer of 2004, when the Mustang Cobra went out of production along with the entire range of Fox-based Mustangs. Prior to that, Ford killed the SVT Focus hatchback, reflecting the commitment to take SVT further up market. (See related story: Ford SVT Changes Gears as Pipeline Runs Dry)

The unit scored a major hit with its GT supercar that launched in August, but the vehicle is not necessarily marketed as an SVT product, even though it was developed partially under the unit’s care. (See related story: First 50 GTs Go the Extra 10 Miles)

The original plan was to revive the unit later this year with a Lightning capable of at least 500 hp and follow up with the next-generation Mustang Cobra in 2006. Those plans, at least in part, have been scratched for a new blueprint that will be explained at the New York show.

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